


The Wrong Request

by writingfromdarkplaces



Series: Traditions and Other Ways to Mess Up Lives [1]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:09:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7576975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfromdarkplaces/pseuds/writingfromdarkplaces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zak asks Lee for a favor he knows he should never agree to, and it changes everything after Zak's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wrong Request

**Author's Note:**

> There are several fics I've read that reference this idea, but I can't remember ever reading one that did it. I wanted to, but since I never found one, I ended up having to try for my own. It's not what I was hoping for, but I didn't think I was capable of properly constructing a series altering AU like this one, or at least not going episode by episode.
> 
> Maybe it's more like a teaser? It can kind of stand alone like this, so that's what it will do.
> 
> And if I did do any more with this, I'd ignore Daybreak because I don't see those flashbacks fitting with this idea.

* * *

“Zak, you're out of your frakking mind,” Lee said, leaning back against the couch. “You're drunk, and in the morning, we will both agree that this conversation... never happened.”

“I'm not kidding,” Zak said, leaning forward in his chair. He should fall out of it, not able to hold his liquor like his brother or his girlfriend, but he was still upright and talking crazy. “Listen to me, Lee, this is important.”

“It's ridiculous,” Lee countered. He put a hand to his head and wondered why Zak wasn't passing out yet to spare them all this misery. This was one of the worst conversations he'd ever had, and that was including his father's lecture on the birds and the bees that had given him nightmares. “Come on, little brother. Sober up and listen to yourself.”

“I am dead serious about this,” Zak insisted. “I want your word. I even want it in writing.”

Lee stared at him. “You have got to be frakking kidding me. I'm surprised Kara isn't here laughing her ass off at us. This is not... I don't—Frak it. It's an outdated tradition. Not even the Gemenese do it these days.”

“They do. I looked into it when I decided I wanted it in writing.”

“Okay, so a few die hard fanatics still practice this thing, but not us. We're atheists. Or at least, I am. I'm not entering into a religious contract with you, and I am _not_ marrying your wife if something happens to you. Nothing is going to happen to you. Just... let this go before I forget you're my brother.”

“I'm not going. I want your promise, Lee.”

Lee shook his head. He wasn't doing it. “I won't give it. This is insane. Nothing is going to happen to you, and Kara would hate you for even asking for this. It is not happening.”

“Kara is too important to me not to ask. She's special. She doesn't see it, but I do. She's everything to me, and I can't—I have to know that she's always going to be taken care of. That if anything _did_ go wrong, she'd have someone to look out for her.”

“And you think that needs a frakking piece of paper and a loveless marriage?” Lee demanded, staring at his brother. “Are you insane? I wouldn't condemn anyone to that, and not someone I cared about like you claim to care about her. She's... She's your... She will be your wife. That means she's going to be my sister. And she's... a friend, I think. I... No. I'm not doing this.”

“You _have_ to. It's the only way I can—she's never going to understand just how much she matters to any of us if... I don't have money, and even if I did, leaving her something in my will isn't enough. What I need is something that says—that she's worth it. Even if fate takes me from her, she's got family. She's got... everything. And she's got faith, Lee. This will matter to her.”

“It's frakked up. Beyond frakked up.”

“Please,” Zak begged. “Please do this for me. For Kara.”

Lee looked at his brother, trying to shake his head and summon the words to say he wasn't that drunk, but the trouble was—he'd always been weak to Zak, and this was no different. He had the terrible feeling that sooner or later, he _would_ give in.

He'd just have to hope nothing happened to Zak for a long, long time.

* * *

“Lee?”

“Kara.” He managed to meet her eyes despite the way the room was spinning. He didn't think he'd been sober since he got off _Atlantia._ He'd wanted nothing more than to stay drunk, to live in this world where Zak wasn't dead and his world made sense again. “I'm... I'm sorry.”

“Shouldn't I be saying that to you?” She shook her head, sitting down next to him. “He was your brother.”

“And your husband,” Lee said, his stomach rolling with the words. He reached for the nearest bottle, not wanting to think about that. That would lead him to a stupid promise, made after too many drinks and months of being worn down by his brother.

“Yeah.” She yanked the bottle from him. “What the frak am I going to do? I never thought I'd do this, and now that I have, I... I lost him. I married him a month ago, and now he's dead. He's _dead._ And I keep asking myself what I'm going to do... I don't know. I've got no frakking clue. This... it can't be happening.”

Lee nodded. “I... It's like everything changed after I got that call. Nothing feels right. Nothing feels real. Dad tried to talk to me for the first time in years, and I think I hung up on him, but I can't even remember. I'm so out of it, and I don't want to be back in it.”

“Zak told me I'd always be sure I had a home and someone to take care of me, and I hit him because he was being a stupid frakker, and now he's gone and I was right and—”

“You weren't.”

“What?”

Lee choked, gagging on the words he needed to say. “Zak asked me, about a week after he proposed, I think... He wanted me to agree to... to Gemenese custom when it came to you.”

“What?”

“Brother-in-law marriage, specifically,” Lee said, needing another drink. She was staring at him, and he felt like scum. “It's just an idea. A piece of paper, too, I guess because I did break down and put it in writing like he wanted, I said I would do it, but—Look at me, Kara. You do not have to do this. I said I would do it because Zak was so hell bent on getting it that I had to—this is coming out wrong. I agreed with him about you deserving to know you'd always have people, and that's why I signed it, but don't think I expect you to go through with it. I wouldn't think—you don't have to marry me because Zak thought it meant I'd care for you forever. I don't need a paper or a ring to do that. He was wrong about that.”

She nodded, looking numb.

Lee cursed. “I'm sorry. I am. I shouldn't have told you. Shouldn't have done it. I just...”

“Would you?”

“What?”

“Would you actually marry me because Zak asked you to?”

Lee closed his eyes. “I would have done anything for Zak. I'd trade places if I could, but I can't do that. I can't do anything...”

“Yes, you can.”

* * *

“This seems familiar.”

She stopped doing the push-ups when she heard him speak, and he almost regretted it because having her stand up was worse. He didn't want to see that smile or the rest of it, not sure how to react at all, not when things were so complicated and messed up between them.

“Captain Adama, sir. Sorry I wasn't there to greet you with the rest of the squadron. Did they kiss your ass to your satisfaction?”

He forced a smile. He didn't want to do this now. “So... what's the charge this time?”

“Striking a superior asshole.”

“I bet you've been waiting all day to say that.”

She grinned as she came close to the bars. “Most of the afternoon. So... how long has it been.”

“Two years,” he answered. _Long enough for you to have made up your mind about those godsdamned papers by now._

“Two years. Must be getting old. Seems like the funeral was just a couple months ago.”

He didn't feel like it, trapped in this limbo for so long. He'd had to see her, needed to talk about what she was going to do with them, if she was actually going to make a decision or if he had to be the one to make it and if he did—Gods, what the frak was he going to do?

“Your old man's doing fine. We don't talk about it much—maybe two, three times a year. He still struggles with it, though.”

“I haven't seen him,” Lee said. If his relationship with Kara was complicated, the one he had with his father was downright frakked up, and he didn't know that he could fix the one without the other, but that went back to assuming he wanted to fix anything.

“Why not?”

 _Why do you think?_ He wanted to demand. It wasn't like it should surprise her. In addition to being the reason Zak was in the cockpit when he shouldn't have, he hadn't exactly approved of Lee's actions before the funeral. The fight afterward had just made things worse.

“Kara, don't even start,” he warned. He didn't want to do this. He just needed to know one thing—was she or was she not going to agree to the divorce?

“How long are you going to do this?”

“Depends. How long are you going to pretend you never got the papers from my lawyer?”

“You know what? You should go. I'm feeling the urge to strike another superior asshole.”

He started to say something more, but he stopped himself, walking away instead. He didn't want to fight with her—Gods, if she just said no, if she told him to stay—he would have. He would have torn the papers up himself in a heartbeat.

Only she'd never really wanted him, the whole thing started because she was grieving for Zak, and it should never have happened in the first place.


End file.
